Pop (Organisation)

The B'ax B'a Otot in Aachanecalco, Pulacan, headquarter of the Aj B'axob Pop, the 'Community Association of Industrial Workers'

A Pop (Mutli: పొపొ; lit. 'Mat') is a type of organization found among Mutulese migrants, predominantly in the Nahuatl-speaking world and the Kayamuca Sea. In K'iche, the word 'Pop' mean 'Mat', a typical symbol of the community and its union, and thus generally refer to any form of assembly. Depending on the context, the Popob can be described as a fraternal organizations, secret societies, or Neighborhood associations.

These associations provide services and support for the local Mutuleses (and more specifically Chaan) communities such as immigrant counseling, Mutli schools, and night schools for adults. They are known to have tie with workers movements and unions and even to have developed into members-owned holdings to promote Workplace democracy in accordance with the tenets of Occidentalism.

History

Origins

The 'Pop' is originally a symbol of the Kʼicheʼ people representing the Nation due to the tradition of the polity' assembly to gather on or around a straw mat as a symbol of union. the leader of such an assembly was called the 'Ajpop', 'He of the Mat', generally translated as 'King'. The most famous of such K'iche pop was the Kingdom of Kumakah and its pop was made of the aristocratic lineages of the Nimabal K'iche, Tahub, Ilok'tab, and the K'oyol. As the Kingdom expanded they integrated or created other Popob representing newly conquered people. The short-lived Nimabal K'iche and Tahub Divine Monarchies thus ruled over a patchwork of Popob representing vassalized but semi-autonomous kingdoms generally led by K'iche lineages enthroned by the Divine King. It's only under the Ilok'tab that these Kingdoms would be abolished, replaced by a system of Vice-royalties. The K'uhul Ajaw however to this day continue to sit from a straw mat within his palace and a straw mat is symbolically hanged to the wall when the Estate Generals are in session.

Popob across the world

Tikal

The first Mutuleses workers arrived on Tikal in the late 18th century as the Mutul was undergoing a period of crisis that would develop into the Sajal War. They served as workers in the plantations, on the docks, and wherever manual labor was required. They essentially were Chol and Xu people looking for work or sold into slavery through Debt bondage.

Popob developed in Tikal like in other Chaan oversea communities first and foremost as Neighborhood associations but repression by Arthuristan authorities drove them into secrecy and, ultimately, criminality. Tikaleses-Chaan gangs would remain a fixture of the island, running gambling houses, prostitution rings, and smuggling routes with the "Mainland". The existence of the Popob proved necessary for the development of worker rights and unions even during the "social golden age" of the 60s and 70s when Hibernians and Chaan workers could be found in equal numbers in the same organisations: political parties, syndicates, worker unions, and so on.

From the late 80s and onward, the social conditions of the Hibernians improved drastically, moreso than those of the Chaan. Most worker movements would be divided along ethnic lines and no longer represented a political force on the island. The "Chaan Left" would be singled out and became synonymous in the medias with crime, corruption, and extortion. From the early 21th century onward, Edward Smoking Frog, a Metis politician, was able to bring back the Tikal Workers' Party into proeminence in a context of heightened Communitarianism.

Popob, already illegal, would slowly dissolve themselves into the larger Hands of Thunder organisation after the latter official creation in 2015. After the 2017 December Massacre and the island takeover by Hibernian supremacists, the Hands of Thunder occupied most of the ethnically-Chan neighborhoods of Tikal City and unilaterally proclaimed the creation of autonomous Batabils, replacing the mayors previously in charge of these districts with their own structures.

After the civil war, the Belfrasian intervention, and the Hands' led purges, the 2019 extraordinary elections gave the victory to the Tikal Workers Party in a landslide. The organisation was then disbanded, replaced by the official and legal Serpent Gate Temple while the entire island was divided into Batabils (municipalities) and Nalils (Wards). The Popob, no longer needed now that the Chaan openly dominate the island, were not restored by their symbolism are slowly but surely imported into Tikaleses institutions.